Mal Devisa is the songwriting, liberation, and poetry project of multifarious artist Deja Carr. Carr began playing music at age 12 when she and a group of friends started an all-female band Who’da Funk It? After five years of performing, writing and recording, Carr began to learn bass and save scraps of her forgotten songs. Based in Amherst, Massachusetts, Mal Devisa’s solo project was born soon after, out of slanted basement walls and busted, dusty kick drums.
Starting in 2014 and breaking through with 2016’s ‘Kiid’, Mal Devisa’s work spans a self-made spectrum of sound from gravitic, soulful rock to soliloquy to unabashed hip hop. Although known for her unmistakable, smouldering voice and loop-based, bass-forward compositions, Carr’s talents also extend to reaches of spoken word and production, paralleled by aspirations to start both a youth foundation and Afrobeat orchestra.
The sound is a hail-storm of genre-defying magic that spans jazz, noise, folk, hip hop, experimental, and many other forms. Her lyrics are punchy and sweet, and her rhythms are lightning and whisper into the haunting DIY spaces she stumbles into. Such boundless inspiration is a central facet of Mal Devisa’s work, whose sonically and narratively unrestrained passages teem with empathy and liberatory visions for a better world.
In collaboration with Gods Wisdom (a leading force of the underground Massachusetts art-rap scene), Mal released the two-track EP ‘The Mystery’ in 2023.
In 2025, Mal Devisa shared a compilation of unreleased material and early work titled ‘Palimpsesa’, which sees the multifarious artist unearthing forgotten songs in her charmingly makeshift style – and proving the futility of genre-based categorisation in one fell swoop. Her first long-form project since ‘Kiid’ – Devisa proves just how inventive she can be, and has always been.
“Carr switches off regularly from soulful croons to callous raps — she excels at both, bringing her inimitable voice and perspective.” – Stereogum
“Simply one of the most incredible voices to ever sing a song.” – Gold Flake Paint
“On Kiid, her first full LP, Mal Devisa’s voice is raw, collected, and honest, scaling heights that you may have forgotten were there. Deja Carr’s voice is a force of gravity, an instrument of rare range and seemingly limitless capacity for empathy.” – Pitchfork